Chapter 153: Chapter 153
Chapter 153
"Thank you. And what is your name, miss?" Qu Yi continued to ask, still confused by the strange demeanor of the young miss before her. Moreover, the friendliness being offered was not entirely trustworthy.
She had been mistreated by her own family members, so it was impossible for her to easily trust in the kindness of others. For Qu Yi, only her young miss was truly intelligent and straightforward.
The way Miss Yueqian treated her was already very gracious. Her mistress wasn’t kind with hidden motives, or to be precise, she didn’t act nice to appear good, nor did she show pity in a condescending way. This made Qu Yi feel she wasn’t a beggar or worthless trash dragging others down.
Her mistress had told her there were tasks for a servant like Qu Yi to perform. Qu Yi needed to improve her sewing skills and learn much more. While she was still unskilled, she was to observe and assist Miss Mu. All of this gave Qu Yi a sense of purpose and made her feel that she was living through her own efforts.
This Qu Yi had her dignity, which also had been protected!
Given how she had been treated by her young miss, she was very suspicious of others suddenly being kind to her. Therefore, no matter what, she would not open her heart to the woman in front of her.
"Ah, my name is Liu Sun. Your mistress should know me well. Please tell her that I would like to speak with her," Liu Sun said with a smile.
Qu Yi tried to think but couldn’t recall hearing about anyone from the Liu family from her mistress. However, she was just a servant. Right now, the young miss and young master were studying, and she was also practicing her embroidery. But upon hearing the sound of the door opening, she had run out to check.
The young girl headed straight to the largest central quarter, which was the room of her mistress and master. Today, her master had gone out as usual, leaving only her mistress, who was sitting and reviewing books and doing other tasks alone in the manor. Qu Yi led the guest to wait at the pavilion in the middle of the garden and then hurried to inform her mistress. If the guest was indeed a friend wanting to meet her mistress, she planned to serve tea as well.
"Miss, there is a guest here to see you. She introduced herself as a young miss from the Liu family, named Liu Sun," Qu Yi said after being granted permission to enter.
Her mistress was writing many characters quickly, with a unique handwriting style that was soft yet firm. Even though Qu Yi couldn’t read all the characters, she could still appreciate the beauty. Not to mention, her mistress allowed her to learn alongside the young miss without withholding any knowledge, enabling Qu Yi to gain some literacy.
Yueqian paused her hand slightly, surprised that the visitor wasn’t someone from the Tang or Qin families as she had expected. The Tang family didn’t matter much, as Tang Mujin often came and went as if it were a playground. Ever since her mother’s health improved significantly after changing the prenatal tonic to a general health tonic based on Yueqian’s advice, the young girl had visited nearly every day with a joyful face.
As for the Qin family, they were the most likely to visit. After Yueqian went to the Qin Manor and received her mother’s shop, the Qin family had gone silent. Recently, it seemed that the Li family had revealed that the shops people wanted to destroy were no longer owned by Qin Yueqian, but were under the Li family’s care.
Initially, Yueqian didn’t understand why the Li and Tang families, who had bought her shops, didn’t come out immediately to clear up the rumors. But it turned out that... they leveraged the notorious reputation of the Villainess Qin. They let people spread the word that the shops were no longer under the Qin family’s control. Although there was a lot of initial backlash, the public opinion eventually came under the Li family’s influence.
Afterward, they found the perfect timing to reopen the shops and surprise those expecting failure, even pretending to be benevolent by setting up food distribution tables.
Well, their promotional tactics were indeed very effective. Yueqian had to acknowledge the Li family’s business acumen. It seemed that the Tang family wanted to make an announcement earlier, but the Li family likely requested their cooperation.
Nevertheless, the fact that all the shops were running smoothly made Yueqian happy. Her mother would receive more money, and with the Li family managing the businesses, profits would surely be substantial. Additionally, her mother now had a valid reason not to financially support the corrupt Qin family anymore. Not only had her daughter taken over her shops, but they had also passed out of the Qin family’s hands to the Liu family.
Given all this, shouldn’t the Qin family have rushed to her as soon as they found out?!
Unexpectedly, not only did they not come, but their movements also became quieter. It seemed the Qin family was brewing a bigger undercurrent this time. Otherwise, they wouldn’t remain silent to stir the waters into the whirlwind before letting the situation collapse.
But she never expected that the first person to come to her would be “Liu Sun,” the woman who had managed to get into Young General’s manor.
The beauty tapped her slender fingers on the table in thought. Qu Yi, still waiting, didn’t dare leave. Without her mistress’s instructions on what to do with the guest, Qu Yi didn’t know what the relationship between the two was.
If it had been someone from the Tang family, even when they first came in yelling and cursing, her mistress welcomed them warmly. In the end, they turned out to be friends. However, this current guest had arrived politely and courteously, yet her mistress seemed to have a lot to ponder over.
And it was true, Yueqian indeed had things to think about. She was trying to follow the plot of the novel to understand what exactly was happening to that female lead at this moment. In fact, Yueqian knew that part of the blame lay with her for Liu Sun’s current lack of support. The poisoning incident that had occurred turned out that a young miss’s maid who had been following her admitted that she had planned the whole thing. Certainly, the reason of that woman was to frame the young miss she served, out of anger for being dismissed from her position as a close maid.
Of course, this maid was likely a scapegoat for someone else because the poison didn’t exist. It was all due to the negligence of these young misses, and it was a coincidence that a severe bacterial infection harmed the soldiers.
In this era, without precise treatments, they called it poisoning, even though everything happened because of filth.
Well, this matter didn’t concern Yueqian much, but it marked the beginning of Liu Sun’s downfall. She used to have many friends willing to help her, but now even those friends had been strictly dealt with by their families. Many were married off to disgraceful old men, and some were confined to their homes, no longer receiving any attention.
They couldn’t do anything either. It was all because these young misses were merely concubine’s daughters, who not only failed to bring any merit but also caused trouble. Punishment was inevitable.
Liu Sun’s support network had been dismantled. It seemed the female lead was truly out of options, so she came directly to her manor.
Thinking about this, Yueqian felt like laughing. Both Liu Sun and her character in the novel had done everything to become Young General’s wife, but the result was trapping themselves in a hell with no way out. They could only keep moving forward. She wondered how they fought so hard to claim such a hell.
"Serve the guest some tea, and add a bit of dried jasmine powder for extra fragrance," Yueqian waved her hand, deciding to listen and get a clear understanding of the situation.
She wasn’t particularly interested in the details of what the female lead was going through at the moment, as the female lead constantly faced problems. She needed to know what part of the story they were at to predict the upcoming events accurately.
Qu Yi nodded and quickly left to carry out her mistress’s orders. Although there were many snacks prepared by her mistress in the manor, her mistress had instructed her to serve only good tea. Thus, Qu Yi didn’t take any snacks with her.
Yueqian put away her compiled book. She was beginning to write a multi-volume novel series, which she believed would attract more customers in the future and increase her income.
What she wanted to do was to lay out this literary series, which would likely take a few years before the entire series was sold out. This genre would have a relatively steady plot with detailed descriptions, making it easy for readers to imagine and anticipate the next book.
She had already sent some of her other novels to the Art Institute, so now she just had to wait for the lump sum payment. Although she wasn’t short of money, having a substantial amount in her dimensional department store was something she enjoyed most.
Currently, she had more than nine million gold taels. Just a few tens of thousands more, and she would reach ten million. She also had many gold-teal notes saved, but those were just pieces of paper with no value in her dimension. This was because she couldn’t sell the paper, only the gold could be exchanged for coins in the department store.
"Miss, this servant has already prepared everything.”
After brewing the tea and setting it up for the guest, Qu Yi didn’t want to stay and watch the guest further, as the guest’s gaze made her feel scared. So, the little maid pretended to inform her young miss, leaving the guest alone for them to talk privately.
Yueqian was unaware of Qu Yi’s feelings; otherwise, she might have laughed.
According to the novel’s plot, Qu Yi greatly sought Liu Sun’s kindness, willing to do anything for her. She even admired her young miss for being so kind, friendly, and humble. However, now Qu Yi seemed to fear Liu Sun’s friendliness and humility.
Well... anyone would be wary. Just because Liu Sun was the heroine, people didn’t consider this aspect. Every novel tends to lean towards the protagonists. Even the male lead, despite his despicable behavior, was still admired.
Having already prepared her attire and hair, Yueqian stayed at home. Although she no longer dressed in a rainbow of colors like a peacock as she used to, she still wore luxurious clothing in simple colors. From being a laughingstock, who would have thought that after getting married, she would become more respectable?
Yueqian wore light grayish-white clothes with delicate patterns she particularly liked. Although Qu Yi could have done a better job, Yueqian hadn’t assigned her real work yet, allowing Qu Yi to learn at her own pace.
The hairstyle of a married woman was different from when she was a young miss. The accessories were also more numerous if one was a high-ranking furen. Yueqian considered herself a furen, even though she wasn’t the furen of a noble. She still dressed in a neat and and it was obvious that she had spent a lot of money.When she appeared before Liu Sun, it made the young woman feel very envious. Liu Sun, who had married into the great Young General’s manor, should have had a good life. However, she married into the manor as a concubine, and she was only the seventh in rank. The clothing she received from the manor wasn’t much, and she had to constantly gauge the moods of the Deng family members.
